Fairy Tail Friendship Moments
by whoeverIamloves
Summary: I don't know what other moments (if any) I'll come up with to add to this, or what pairings they might be. New one: Lucy has a nightmare and Leo comes to save her from it. LucyXLoke. (First one is LucyXGray. He checks on her after the team gets back to Magnolia from a mission, and helps take care of her injuries.)
1. Aftermath

Lucy collapsed face-first on her bed. That last mission had been rather painful, and she was achy all over from it. All she wanted to do was sleep it off; she'd had a bath and changed into fresh pajamas and was soooo ready to just melt into sleep. Natsu and Gray had both come out of the mission a bit roughed up as well, though most of their injuries were caused by fighting each other. Erza, of course, had taken the least damage to her body.

The door burst open, and before Lucy could even force her tired muscles to lift her off the bed, she heard Gray's voice.

"Oi, Lucy!"

She collapsed back on the bed. _Whyyyyyy? I just want to sleeeeeeep! Why do they always just barge into my house?_

"Got any noodles made?" he asked, ignoring her as he headed toward the kitchen. He was actually wearing his clothes for once, but bandages were visible all the way up his left arm, and she knew there were more around his opposite shoulder (and thus also his chest), as well as both of his knees.

"Erza separated you and Natsu again, didn't she?" Lucy asked flatly from the bed, her eyebrow beginning to twitch. She heard the fridge door open, and could picture him standing with his head inside, looking around for something to munch on.

"She knew he couldn't handle any more fights with me for a while," he said cheerfully. She could hear his gloating (probably undeserved) from the other room, then the fridge door closed. He probably hadn't found anything of interest, because she heard cabinet doors opening and shutting until she heard the crinkling of a plastic bag. He wandered back into the room with a bag of potato chips already open, crunching away happily.

"Go away," she muttered. Not that she expected him to.

He paused in his walking, but not in his chewing, to actually look at her for the first time.

"You look terrible," he said with his mouth not quite empty.

"Fffshrroo yoooo," she said into the pillow.

He turned and walked back into the kitchen. A moment later, she heard her kettle start to whistle, and a moment after that, she realized Gray was coming toward her again.

She pointedly ignored him until he was right beside her bed, and he placed a steaming cup on the nightstand beside her. The sound it made was what caused her to lift her face from the pillow, and he set his bag of chips beside it and motioned for her to scoot over. When she scowled and 'harumph'-ed and reburied her face in the pillow, he forcibly pushed her body enough to allow himself space to sit beside her.

"How are your injuries?" he asked.

"Fffmm," she said into the pillow.

Gray reached for the hem of her pajama top and gingerly lifted it up her back. When she started to rise up to swat him away, he put one hand on her shoulder to hold her down. His hand, as usual, was cool to the touch, but not uncomfortably cold.

"Damn, that hit you took in the back really bruised deep, didn't it?"

Lucy wanted to cry. Really, all she wanted to do was rest!

He lifted the hem a little higher on her side, just high enough to see her ribs. She could feel the places they were still a bit swollen, because her skin felt tight and hot in those spots.

"You should have done something about these," he told her. "Did you put ice on it when you got home?"

She lifted her face. "Go away," she said again, then returned her face to its previous position.

Then, she felt Gray's weight leave the bed. Just as she was going to sigh in relief, he returned with a thin towel, and she felt the bed dip again. She tried not to growl.

He lifted her shirt again to the same position he had a moment ago and positioned it so that it would stay, then draped the towel over her exposed side and back.

"Whmmphrr ooo dooin?" she asked, still not willing to look up.

"What you should've," he said, though his relaxed voice took out any sense of reprimand the statement may have otherwise carried.

Before her tired brain could think of the words to ask what he meant by that, she felt a stiff, mildly cold weight forming across her lower back on top of the towel.

Gray brought his palm to hover just a couple of inches above the bruises on her back, and a thick layer of ice formed around the shape of her body on top of the towel. As it formed, he moved his hand to spread it to her side, bracing and cooling her worst injuries at the same time.

She hated to admit it, but his ice felt good. Soothing. She finally turned her head to the side so that she could speak.

"I'm going to be too cold to sleep," she whined, just for something to whine about so he'd know she still didn't like people barging into her house and making themselves at home.

"That's why I made you tea," he said proudly. "Hot tea."

She didn't say anything, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up to the feel of a wet room-temperature towel on her back and the sight of a sleeping, mostly-nude teammate draped across her couch.

She felt herself smile in spite of her best efforts.

* * *

I'm not 100% sold on this pairing, but I'm warming up to it (haha). (I'm also only on like episode 40, so I don't know what else has happened yet in canon.)

I'm also liking the relationship between Loke and Lucy, and between Gray and Erza. I'm not much of a shipper in general, but...idk. I like sweet moments, and as an introvert, those tend to be one-on-one (or at least in pretty small groups) in my mind. So I'm not so much opposed to pairings in this fandom as I am in some other fandoms, because we actually do see flirting in canon in various directions.

All that to say, I may post different mixes in this collection, if the fancy strikes me. Just FYI.


	2. Nightmare

Lucy panted in her sleep, twisting and turning in her sheets.

She was caught! She couldn't move her legs; they were tied. And he was holding her by the shoulders, getting ready to slap her across the room—

Where were her friends? Where was anyone to help her? She couldn't summon anyone—none of the spirits she had keys for were strong enough to defeat this enemy, so doing that would only cause a world of pain for whoever she summoned. It was no good. Her guild was destroyed again, her magic power had run out, and now the enemy was… Lucy clenched her eyes shut.

She hadn't felt this alone since…since she'd lived at home. Since she'd left the Heartfilla Estate over a year ago. And now, she would be alone for the rest of her very short life because Natsu and Gray and Erza and everyone else were all defeated, and the evil mastermind who'd planned it all was now turning his attention to her—

. . .

Leo jerked his head up from the book he was reading. He dropped it where he sat, startling the few other spirits in the Common Hall with him, and the next instant he was in Lucy's…

Bedroom?

Was she under attack? The way her covers were moving around…

He crossed the room to her bed in just a couple of strides and jerked her blanket away, expecting to be tearing someone off of her with his next motion. To his surprise, she was alone. The sudden freedom seemed to startle her, but she didn't wake up. Just as Leo realized what was actually happening, Lucy lunged for her belt that held her keys and her whip. He expected her to go for the keys, already smirking as he wondered if she'd choose his key or a different one.

She surprised him again, though. She reached right past the keys to the whip. Leo's eyebrows shot up in the moonlit room. How had she not even opened her eyes yet?

"Lucy!" he said in a firm voice, quietly so as not to alarm her any further. She didn't seem to hear, and she had her whip by the handle. Leo settled into a ready stance, not sure what to do if she actually attacked him by mistake. "Lucy, wake up!" he repeated.

Her eyes opened, but they were unfocused. She seemed to be just barely aware enough of her surroundings to be able to aim the whip at him. Fortunately, she was slow in her mostly-still-asleep state, so when she cracked it in his direction, he could see it coming and raised his hand to catch it. He let the leather strip wrap itself around his forearm, feeling just a slight bite from it when the sharp little tip finally slapped against his open hand.

Before Lucy could react, he jerked her toward himself as gently as he could, and she stumbled into him. She was becoming more aware now, he was thankful to see, but he held onto the business end of the whip just in case, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly so that she wouldn't be able to move.

"Lucy," he said again, feeling the rigidness of both their bodies. Hers with fear, his with caution. "Lucy, you're ok. Everything's alright. It was just a nightmare." She drew in a sharp breath and tugged uncertainly on the handle of her whip. "It's me. Everything's fine. You're not hurt, and nobody's going to hurt you. Nobody's in danger. I'm here."

He felt her relax, and he loosened his hold on her the same amount. "Loke?" she asked in a small voice.

"Yeah. It's me. It was just a bad dream."

She seemed fully awake now, so Leo dropped his arms to his sides and let her push away from him.

"Where did you come from?" she asked.

The Zodiac Leader adjusted his tinted glasses on his nose with a small smirk. "From heaven," he winked, and she deadpanned. Leo chuckled lightly. "I told you I'd always come to save you when you needed me to. I felt your panic, so here I am."

"But I didn't…"

"Come on, Luce. How many times have I already come to your rescue on my own power? You don't have to call me, not when you're as scared as you were just now," he reminded her.

She sank back onto the bed, and Leo moved to sit beside her. She didn't seem to realize yet that neither of them had let go of her whip.

"So you can feel what I feel?" she asked, and he shrugged.

"Only when it's really extreme. It's the same as between spirits. We can sense each other's terror or intense pain or extreme bliss, but no details. No information about _why_ those feelings are happening. And that's what just happened with you."

Lucy frowned. "So can I feel what you feel then? If it's extreme enough, I mean?"

Loke smiled and shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder if you do. But usually, no. Humans don't have the capacity to receive that kind of broadcast, in a manner of speaking. I think you're just very kind and very perceptive, and that's what makes you such an amazing Celestial Wizard."

They were silent for a moment as she turned the information over in her head. She'd never had time to ask before about how he knew exactly when to show up to save her; he'd always done it in the heat of battle and there never seemed to be a good chance later when she was actually thinking about it.

"Do you want some tea or something?" Leo asked, nudging his shoes off.

Lucy shook her head. "No, that dream started out with tea. I don't want anything…except to go back to sleep," she said in a quiet voice. "Thank you for coming and waking me up."

"Will you be able to sleep?" he asked, looking at her as she continued to stare at the floor, and she blinked.

"I'm…I don't know."

"Um, Lucy?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I see that for a minute?" he asked, pointing to the whip handle still in her hands. She looked down as if noticing it for the first time, and her eyes followed it to his arm where it was still wrapped. She gasped when she saw the tiny trickle of blood on his hand.

"Oh my…" she trailed off. "I attacked you!?" She threw the whip down as if it had suddenly burned her, and scooted away from him. "Leo, I'm…oh my god. I'm so, so sorry." She looked like she was about to cry as Leo began to finally unwind the whip from around his arm.

"Don't worry about it. You weren't attacking me; you were attacking whoever was attacking you in your dream. That's exactly what you're supposed to do," he told her gently. "I just happened to interfere and you thought I was that person, I guess." He looped the whip back into its normal circle and tossed it across the room to the couch.

"Your hand…" she breathed, blinking back tears. This reaction was exactly what set her apart from every other owner he'd had—this intense regret at attacking him, even by accident. It was what allowed him to forgive her for it so easily, and even find it amusing. Then she was reaching for his hand and inspecting the tiny wound. He let her look for a few seconds, then pulled it back. He drew it to his mouth and licked the blood off, then turned it again where she could see.

"It's already stopped bleeding, see? No harm done."

Lucy bit her lip. "I'll take care of it for you," she said, already rising and heading toward her bathroom. Leo sighed as he watched her go. If it would make her feel better, he supposed he'd let her bandage his hand. Maybe it would take her mind off of the nightmare a little more.

While she was digging around in her cabinets, Leo stood and unbuttoned his suit jacket. He shrugged it off and hung it over her desk chair, then tugged his tie loose as well and hung it on the corner. Then Lucy was coming back in.

She stopped short when she saw him with his jacket and tie off, and loosening the top button of his shirt. "Don't tell me you've been taking lessons from Gray," she said flatly, and he grinned.

"Of course not," he told her as she sat on the edge of the bed. She pulled him to sit beside her.

Lucy quickly cleaned and bandaged the cut—it was actually one of the quickest she'd ever done, because it was indeed small. Then she set her first aid kit down on the nightstand and sighed. She looked tired, Leo noted, then decided that was a good thing. Maybe she'd be able to go back to sleep after all.

"I think I do want some water," she announced as she stood up. "Can I get you anything?"

Leo shook his head. "I'm fine," he answered.

Lucy came back from the kitchen a moment later to find her bed remade, and Leo propped up in it on one elbow.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, and he just smiled at her.

"Keeping your bad dreams away," he said, then dropped the teasing tone. "Seriously. I know you're afraid you might fall right back into the nightmare, so I'm gonna stay here with you."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Really, you'll do anything to get in a girl's—"

"No," he cut her off. "No, I won't. That was a phase for me… a way to cope with the fact that I was dying." He lifted the covers for her to climb in, also subtly showing her that he was still fully dressed apart from his shoes, belt, and tie. "I promise to behave," he offered innocently. "Now come here."

She let out a defeated groan and crawled into bed beside him. He deftly slipped his arm under her head where she expected her pillow to be. "Although, if you wanted to accept the love I have for you…" he teased, then yelped when she pinched the tender skin of the inside of his bicep. "Ok, not the right time. Don't worry, I understand," he said with a gentle smile. One of these days, he'd get her to see that he truly wasn't joking about how deeply he cared for her.

Until then, though, he'd just do what he could. Tonight, that meant holding her so she wouldn't fall back into any more nightmares.

She took a minute to get comfortable, and as she did, he thought about how else he could tease her to put her in a lighter mood for sleep.

"You know, about that whip…" he began quietly, and she turned wide eyes to his. "I'm not really into that kind of thing."

"I'm sorry," she started again, but he shushed her. "Too much of a lion-tamer thing for my tastes, you know?" When she realized what he was saying, and that he was actually still teasing her, she blushed and swatted him lightly in the ribs. "Virgo, though," he continued, already chuckling, "Virgo definitely has a thing for it. Has she asked you for 'punishment' yet?" Now he was laughing outright, and Lucy was bright pink. She swatted him again, and he shifted playfully to get his torso out of her swatting range.

After his laughter died down and her face returned to its normal color, he scooted back over to her and wrapped his other arm around her. She already seemed close to sleep, he noted with satisfaction.

"How long will you stay?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

"As long as you want. And I'll go back when you're ready for me to," he added, not wanting her to misunderstand him in light of his past mistake.

"But…isn't it uncomfortable for you?" she asked.

No way, he almost said. Lying next to her and holding her was one of the most comfortable things he'd felt in quite a while. He might even drift off, even though celestial beings didn't really *need* sleep, per se.

"I was here for 3 years; I think I can handle a night," he said with a smirk in his voice. "Go to sleep."

"Stop talking," she returned, then her breathing evened out.

Leo smiled into the moonlight and let his own body relax a little more.


End file.
